Type 1 on 1 | Diabetes Stories

Can we have a little moment for Molly please? A burst of vitality, humility, candour and humour - achieving the dreams she once feared type 1 diabetes would prevent, AND keeping it @cutenchronic in the process! The TikTok account that Molly started in lockdown gave her a whole new sense of purpose, and allowed her to turn her lack of self-confidence around. Molly has had two lifelong dreams - to d...

‘2 hours after giving birth, it was insinuated that I was responsible for my son being in a special care unit.’ Illustrator Suzie Byatt fell pregnant just months after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2022. Still reeling from a type 2 misdiagnosis in the middle of the pandemic, Suzie carefully nurtured her developing son within strict blood glucose parameters alongside getting to grips with...

Hello lovelies! In honour of World Diabetes Day on 14th November, please enjoy this special solo episode where I talk through 14 lessons that have helped me to live better with type 1 diabetes. I've gone from 'surviving' (just) with type 1 diabetes to really living in vibrant, messy technicolour, and while I still have my frustrating diabetes days, I have come a very long way in terms of the tools...

'This is a life long process, you’re going to keep tinkering.' Mila Clarke knows all too well how damaging the stigma that surrounds diabetes is, having been repeatedly undermined both inside and outside of the medical profession through multiple diabetes diagnoses. Mila was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2016, and after four tough years of managing her condition without the right medication an...

It’s not everyday you meet someone with a heart like Jay James. The X Factor finalist, one quarter of platinum-selling group The Overtones, songwriter, radio presenter, artist manager and former Royal Navy physical trainer, it’s fair to say that Jay has experienced a lot of what life has offer. Jay’s first introduction to type 1 diabetes had come early in 2022 when he started to manage singer and...

‘You’re just trying to make the balance of your decisions move in the right direction, and you don’t get them all right.’ Those are the words of competitive yachtsman Jack Trigger, who is the first guest of this brand new series! You'd be forgiven for thinking that Jack is referring to type 1 diabetes here, but in fact he’s referring to ocean racing - his sport, his profession, and his first love....

We’re ending this series of Type 1 on 1 with an incredibly powerful episode from Luke Watts, dad of 5-year-old Noah. After two months of inconclusive GP appointments, Noah was rushed to hospital in DKA in 2018 aged just 11 months - and became the youngest baby in Leeds to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Luke and his wife Katie steadily got their little boy back, but a whirlwind couple of weeks...

I’m not sure episodes get much more special than this… This week I had the absolute honour of interviewing my mum, Sandra. We tore up the interview notes and just had a proper (and really quite rare) mother-daughter chat about how a single finger prick in the doctor’s surgery back in 1996 changed the entire course of our lives. It was so fascinating to hear about my diagnosis through my mum’s eyes...

Kalex Willzy is a radio presenter and content creator from London. When he's not busy with music and radio, he's making people laugh with his relatable type 1 diabetes Reels on Instagram, putting a humourous spotlight on the more ridiculous moments that living with type 1 diabetes brings. Diagnosed at the age of 23 in 2016, he describes himself as a 'lone ranger' when it comes to figuring out life...

Becci Youde is a geography teacher living in Hong Kong with her husband and two young children. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 23, five years before she made the move overseas from Somerset in the UK. I discovered Becci’s quiet courage throughout the course of our chat, which left me feeling a lot of admiration for what she’s tackled. Finding and securing the job that would e...

Ami’s Back for Diabetes Week! It’s an important week in diabetes land, and a important week needs an important guest, so of course it could only be my dear friend Ami Bennett. Fellow type 1 diabetic, fellow media professional, fellow journalist who doesn’t do journalism, fellow dancer who no longer dances, fellow master of escapades great and small. If you haven’t met Ami before, there are 30 epis...

Today’s guest Ben Tzeel is a registered dietitian, certified strength coach and diabetes educator, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7. Ben’s baseball dreams were snatched from him at a young age because of a lack of understanding about his condition from those around him. Isolated from his team, he set out to prove his coach and others wrong by becoming the best player on the field. Hi...

'You're allowed to be upset for your child. Just don't get stuck there.’ Heather Jackson is a business owner and incredibly powerful writer who I first came across when she shared a letter she’d written on the anniversary of her son’s first diaversary. In 2019, Heather was adapting to life as a family of four when her oldest son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just after his third birthday. It...

Conversations that leave you feeling energised are my jam and sports presenter Jordan Robinson DELIVERS. LA-based WNBA sports journalist, host and podcaster Jordan started playing basketball as a young child, reaching division 2 in college. Her type 1 diabetes diagnosis at the age of 23 came at a time of huge change, as she was recovering from injury while building a new career as a journalist. Ov...

Dawn Adams jovially describes herself as ‘chaos’, but in my opinion she is a multi-tasking, time-defying, change-making superhero - with an undeniably soothing voice to boot. Dawn is a former teacher turned midwife with a specialist interest in diabetes and pregnancy from Northern Ireland. She's is also completing a PhD in type 1 diabetes, pregnancy and wearable technology, and uses any remaining...

‘If not you, then who? If not now, then when?’ Jazz Sethi is the founder and director of The Diabesties Foundation - an Indian non-profit turned global movement making those with Type 1 Diabetes feel heard, understood, supported and celebrated. Jazz was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009 at 13 years old. 10 years on she'd never met anyone else with the condition, so she tentatively arranged a...

After years of trying to get to grips with diabetes technology with frustrating and disappointing results, an NHS clinical trial changed Yasmin Hopkins' life. In 2022 she trialled a closed-loop system as part of the NHS England NICE pilot study, whereby her insulin pump and CGM sensor constantly communicate to make automated basal adjustments to her insulin doses. Yasmin's HbA1c went from over 100...

Eileen Williams and Shelley Thompson met at a gym 26 years ago, having put their babies in the same creche so that they could take some time to work out. They bonded as new mums, and what started as a quick coffee soon became a fierce friendship. But their bonds run even deeper, as both have since been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, although receiving those diangoses was far from straight forward...

Trigger Warning: alcohol misuse and self-harm "OCD is a constant battle of feeling you’re a horrendously bad person. It’s very easy to self-punish." I have long admired Duke Al’s work, and after listening to this episode I can almost guarantee you'll have an even more powerful appreciation of his words, as well as the man behind them. Duke is a spoken word artist and rapper from South Wales, who b...

How do you manage your blood sugars when you’ve got TWO BILLION pairs of eyes on you? Well, if you’re as focused as world-renowned cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, it’s just another day. The particular day I’m referring to is playing at the Royal Wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Harry and Meghan in 2018. As you do. Sheku is of the most celebrated and in demand cellists in the world, achieving...

'You going into the hospital ill, and you think you’ll come out fine.' Sales executive Andy Hartnell is today's guest. Andy was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in his first year of university, and he was so unwell that his mum didn't recognise him - and yet he was turned away by a doctor who believed he had a fever. He was admitted to intensive care the following day with a blood glucose reading of...

Today's guest is David Crosse, a retired jumps jockey who changed the face of the sport for people with type 1 diabetes. Born in Tipperary in Ireland, he moved to the UK aged 16 for riding and over the course of an impressive 20 year career, secured 207 winners from more than 3,500 rides in Britain and Ireland. At the age of 22 David was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - just as his professional ca...

Author Victoria Bennett is today’s guest. Her memoir, ‘All My Wild Mothers’ is a story of motherhood, loss and what can happen when you steadily sow the seeds of new life, as Victoria and her son did on barren wasteland next to the council estate they moved to when her son was five years old. Victoria was weeks away from giving birth when her world was turned upside down after her sister died sudd...

Imagine this: you’re a junior doctor, getting to grips with life on the ward in the early stages of your medical career, working long shifts under a stretched system. You’ve got a chronic illness to manage while you care for patients, and you’ve been training for this your whole life. Then, a few months in… a global virus strikes and you find yourself on the front line of the NHS as a pandemic shu...

'Be intentional with every moment of your life.’ Ohhh we’re playing in the big leagues today! Rob Howe - entrepreneur, former professional basketball player and founder of the Diabetics Doing Things Platform is today’s podcast guest. A seasoned podcast pro with over 1 million downloads to his name, we talk about everything from school rumours that he’d died (!) after being diagnosed at the age of...